when i got my spider (arrie) she would only take mice. all my other snakes eat rats and that's what i breed so i wanted to switch her over if she would do it fairly easily. so i got some mice and let them stink up their enclosure nice and good. then i scooped out some of the dirty mouse bedding into a separate container and put a rat in it for about 15-30 minutes while i fed the other snakes. she ate the first rat i offered to her that way (she never took them before, when i didn't scent them first). it only took about 4 scented rats before she started taking them without me scenting them first.